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EMS in Imperial, Wauneta equipped with field-triage bags

The West Central Medical Response System (WCMRS) provided mass casualty incident field-triage bags to Imperial and Wauneta EMS units. The presentations were made during the EMS meeting in Imperial last Thursday. Overall, 40 triage bags will be provided to EMS ambulance units in the 16-county WCMRS region. The bags contain field-triage supplies such as flags, patient triage tags, triage color tape, safety identification vests, forms and instructions for EMS staff to conduct field triage for a mass causality incident. The equipment will help EMS personnel sort and group injured victims by severity of injuries. Then victims will be prioritized by injury severity to determine who needs medical treatment and transported to hospitals first. The bags will be carried on the ambulance units. The intent of providing the bags is to assist EMS ambulance units in field triage methods in a uniform response, and improve integration of EMS in the West Central Medical Response System (WCMRS), response plan and participation in WCMRS disaster drill exercises. WCMRS steering committee members who attended the bag presentation event were WCMRS Coordinator Sue Mulligan and Angella Herbert with Chase County Community Hospital. EMS representatives accepting the triage bags were Deb Hayes with Imperial EMS and Melisa Klentz with Wauneta EMS. The purpose of the WCMRS is to prepare local medical systems, in partnership and collaboration with public health, fire, law enforcement, emergency management, government entities and community organizations, for an integrated medical response to any disaster situation. The West Central Medical Response system (WCMRS) region of 16 counties include Arthur, Chase, Dundy, Frontier, Furnas, Grant, Hayes, Hitchcock, Hooker, Keith, Lincoln, Logan, McPherson, Perkins, Red Willow and Thomas. The WCMRS is committed to improving the region’s response to a disaster. These incidents call for a coordinated regional response and a plan for the coordination of agencies involved, the inventory of resources, the communication between Medical Response System partners and the promotion of cooperation between response agencies. The WCMRS Regional Plan integrates elements of existing emergency response plans and does not supersede or replace them but is meant to interface with existing response plans, said WCMRS Coordinator Mulligan.